ZONING PANEL OKS MALL SITE FOR CHURCH

A church on Thursday won tentative approval to move into a west Boca Raton shopping mall, even though community leaders said they would prefer stores.

The county's Zoning Commission voted 6-2 to allow the South Palm Community Church to rent 4,800 square feet in the Loggers' Run Shoppes, at Palmetto Park Road and Ponderosa Drive. The vote must be ratified by the County Commission on Oct. 27.

But leaders in Loggers' Run, a subdivision of 1,800 homes, said they feared the loss of shops in the community's only shopping mall. Already, a day care center has replaced one store.

"We are going completely away from retail, which is not in the best interests of the people of Loggers' Run," said Brian Becchio, the community's property manager.

Anna Cottrell, who represented the mall's owner, Exel Properties Inc., said the company has tried without success to attract more retailers to the mall. The 115,000-square-foot center is anchored by a Publix supermarket, but it is smaller than more modern malls.

"The users have not found enough support from the community to operate the center in the way the community would like," Cottrell said.

She said the congregation now meets at Spanish River High School. Its members consider the mall a temporary home for up to five years while a sanctuary is built.

Commissioners Frank Barbieri - who is president of the Loggers' Run board of governors - and Allen Kaplan voted against the church's relocation.

"It was set up for retail," Barbieri said. "We have expanded day care, and now a church. Where's it going to end?"

But others supported the move.

"I don't think I can support limiting, in a free-enterprise system, what an owner can do with his property," said Chairman Mark Guzzetta.